The wedded couple of Vipond and Hadley are Canada’s top XC Mountain Bikers of 2011

Catherine Vipond of Oshawa, Ontario and Matthew Hadley of Mount Hope, New Brunswick both won the highest honours in the Canada Cup series as the 2011 season concluded Sunday in Edmonton, Alberta, with the presentation of the fourth and last race of the 2011 Canada Cup Mountain Bike Series.

Vipond and Hadley, a wedded couple, participated in all four events across the country this year, and have posted the best overall results of the season.

Hadley won the first two races of the season, which gave him a solid lead midway through the season. After an average placing in the third race, Hadley raced back to the podium with a third place finish on Sunday, securing the Canada Cup title.

Cameron Jette of Toronto Ontario (3-Rox-Racing) took the second place with 470 points, stepping twice on the podium, in second and third places.

Evan Guthrie (Rocky Mountain Factory Team) and Léandre Bouchard (Cyclones d’Alma), two U23 riders, finished tied in third place with each 435 points. With his win on the last race in Edmonton, Guthrie won the tie breaker to give him the third and last spot on the podium, leaving Bouchard, the 2011 Canadian U23 Champion, in fourth place.

In the women’s category, Vipond stepped on the podium in all four races, winning the first and last race of the season. She fought a hard and tight race the entire season alongside Jean-Ann Berkenpas of Maple Ridge, BC with only five points differentiated the top two riders in the final standings. Berkenpas cumulated one win and two silver medals, and could have won secured the title with a win on the last stage of the series.

A total of 99 elite men mountain bikers cumulated points this year on the Canada Cup series in the elite races, while 38 women took part in the Elite series.

In the junior races, it was no surprise to see Frédérique Trudel of Breakeyville, Québec take the top honours in the women’s category, even though she is racing her first year as a junior. Trudel, the current Canadian Junior Champion, started the season with two wins on her home soil in Québec before finishing second in Ontario and fourth in Edmonton. Trudel finished with a 55-point lead over both second place Catherine Fleury of Alma, Québec, and third place Haley Smith of Uxbridge, Ontario. Both Fleury and Smith finished the season tied with 230 points.

Marc-Antoine Nadon of Timmins, Ontario topped the standings amongst the men junior riders with the maximum 300 points. Nadon, also the Canadian Junior Champion, led the standings the entire season and capped off his dream season with three victories in four races.

The season started back in late May with the opening race held in Mont-Tremblant. The tour stayed in Eastern Canada with races in Baie-Saint-Paul, QC and Barrie, Ontario before making its way across the country for its last stop of the calendar in Edmonton, Alberta.

For standings purposes, the top three results of the four races were taken into consideration.

The event in Edmonton was made possible thanks to the tight collaboration between the Canadian Cycling Association, the Alberta Bicycle Association and the local organizing committee led by Mike Sanercki of the Alberta Mountain Bike Racing.

The Canada Cup National Cycling Series represents the highest calibre of coordinated domestic racing in Canada. The series is a stepping stone for any riders with the goals of achieve international success. There are two goals of the series: to provide athletes from across the country with the best possible competitive preparation to aspire to national and international level events, and to develop and promote the sport of cycling in Canada through the encouraged participation of all age and ability categories.

The series is celebrating its 20th anniversary. Since its inception in 1991, the Canada Cup Series produced elite athletes notably Olympians Catharine Pendrel (Luna Pro Team), Marie-Hélène Prémont (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain) and Geoff Kabush (Maxxis-Rocky Mountain), World Championships silver medallist Steve Smith (Devinci Global Racing) as well U23 National Champion Emily Batty (Subaru-Trek) just to name a few.